Job 34:34

Job had found fault with God's judgments because they were not according to his shortsighted expectations. It was Job therefore who was choosing his own affliction, not Elihu, who longs to have him declare it, and clear himself. He appeals to the men of understanding again. Will they not all join him in saying, "Job has spoken without knowledge, and his words are without wisdom." Can we not fully agree with this conclusion?

Elihu turns to men of good judgment, so that they may say whether such language was wise, or in line with knowledge. He did not wish Job afflicted, but tested to the full, because his answers suited wicked men, or gave them support.

Elihu wants his words tested as closely as possible. Truth has nothing to fear from that, if people listen with a conscience toward God. The trouble is a wrongly set will that refuses everything which brings man low — and all truth must bring him low, because he is fallen. But the fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom, just as fools despise wisdom and instruction. So he calls men of wisdom and knowledge to listen. There is an inner man as well as an outer one, and he cannot escape responsibility.

He quotes Job's own words (Job 12:11), which look like a proverb. He reminds his hearers that the ear takes in words and tests them, just as the mouth does with food. So let them join him as he searches out whether Job's charges are true or false. In the same way our Lord appealed to His hearers, "Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?" and the apostle says, "I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say."

"For Job has said, I am righteous" (verses 2-5). And he was, in the sense in which his three friends denied; but he was not righteous in glorifying God. No, he found fault with God.

Job should have known better, for he was not wicked. Yet whatever other sin he was guilty of, Job was adding to it the serious crime of rebellion against the God of all creation. He acted as though he could stand against God and come out well!

It would have been more fitting if he had humbly accepted the correction. He could have admitted that there was sin in him which he did not know about, and that he needed God to teach him about it, so that he could put right what was wrong. Instead, he challenged God's judgment and preferred his own mind. In doing that he added rebellion against God to his sin.

This is what God will later on bring home to his conscience in that terrible introductory question: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" So Job is being prepared to listen to that Voice. Elihu is truly meeting Job's desire for an umpire, and Job's silence may well be a sign that conviction is starting.

What a blunder commentators have made in calling Elihu's gentle and true words "a harsh judgment," and in saying that God rebukes him there. No; God does not rebuke Elihu who had exalted His Name and His works. He rebukes Job.